Device for Fastening a Cover Strip

ABSTRACT

An apparatus is described for fastening a cover strip ( 1 ) with a support arranged in the connection gap between a floor covering ( 5 ) and a wall ( 7 ), which support comprises a floor leg ( 4 ) grasping beneath the floor covering ( 5 ) and a wall leg ( 8 ) comprising a clamping receiver ( 9 ) for the cover strip ( 1 ), which clamping receiver is pressurized with the spring force of at least one spring element ( 19 ) supported on the face side of the floor covering ( 5 ). In order to provide advantageous constructional conditions it is proposed that the support is composed of a floor part ( 2 ) with the floor leg ( 4 ) and a support part ( 3 ) comprising the wall leg ( 8 ), forming a stop ( 13 ) overlapping the floor covering ( 5 ) and engaging in a stop-limited way into a slide-in guide means ( 6 ) of the floor part ( 2 ) extending transversally to the floor covering.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to an apparatus for fastening a cover strip with a support arranged in the connection gap between a floor covering and a wall, which support comprises a floor leg grasping beneath the floor covering and a wall leg comprising a clamping receiver for the cover strip, which clamping receiver is pressurized with the spring force of at least one spring element supported on the face side of the floor covering.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

In order to enable the fastening of cover strips without tools between a wall and a floor it is known (EP 0 900 897 A2) to provide a support with a clamping receiver for the cover strip, which support encloses the edge on the wall side of the floor covering on the upper and bottom side, and which cover strip engages with an insert lip into an insert guide means of the support. In order to avoid having to provide special profiles for the cover strips which form insert lips, the support can also be provided with a two-part configuration, with one support part forming a spring profile in addition to the insert lip for the insert guide means which projects into a receiving slot of the cover strip. Although providing an insert guide means which is parallel to the floor offers the advantage in comparison with an insert guide means which extend transversally thereto that different widths which are obtained between the floor covering and the wall can be compensated by way of the engagement depth of the insert lip, any widening of the connection gap which occurs after the laying of the floor covering can no longer be compensated irrespective of the alignment of the insert guide means because the support is inserted into the edge of the floor covering and is forced to follow its movements relative to the wall.

An additional factor is that due to the enclosure of the edge of the floor covering on both sides, the legs of the support which enclose the floor covering need to have a distance from each other which is adjusted to the thickness of the floor covering, which requires separate supports for floor coverings which differ with respect to their thickness.

In order to partly avoid such disadvantages it has already been proposed (EP 1 233 119 A2) to provide a support which grasps beneath the floor covering with a floor leg and rests on the wall with a wall leg which is pressed against the wall with the help of bracing leaf spring elements. For this purpose, the leaf spring elements rest on the face side of the floor covering under spring bias. The contact of the support with the wall is thus always ensured even when changing the width of the connection gap, so that the connection gap is covered without a gap by the cover strip. Since the height position of the clamping receiver for the cover strip is defined by the floor leg of the support and the support also rests on the upper side of the floor covering by means of supporting lips bent out of the wall leg, the dependence of the support on the respective thickness of the floor covering is given again. Moreover, the leaf spring elements which protrude laterally in the longitudinal direction of the edge of the floor covering from the support not only cause a comparatively large distance of the support from the wall corners, but also lead to a comparatively high amount of waste of material when the support is punched from a sheet which is recommended for use owing to the leaf spring elements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is based on the object of providing an apparatus for fastening a cover strip of the kind mentioned above in such a way that the support can be used independent of the respective thickness of the floor covering, without having to omit a gap-free coverage of the cover strip both on the floor covering as well as on the wall.

This object is achieved by the invention in such a way that the support is composed of a floor part with the floor leg and support part comprising the wall leg, forming a stop overlapping the floor covering and engaging in a stop-limited way into a slide-in guide means of the floor part extending transversally to the floor covering.

Since as a result of this measure the two parts of the support engage into each other via a slide-in guide means extending transversally to the floor covering, the required adjustment of the support to the respective thickness of the floor covering can be made via said slide-in guide means. For this purpose, the support part forming the wall leg comprises a stop overlapping the floor covering, which stop, when placed on the top side of the floor covering, delimits the engagement depth between the two parts of the support. With the distance of the clamping receiver for the cover strip from the stop of said support part, which distance is predetermined in a constructional way, the stop supported on the floor covering also ensures a play-free contact of the cover strip held in the clamping receiver on the floor covering irrespective of the respective thickness of the floor covering. The contact on the wall is ensured by the spring element between the wall leg of the support and the floor covering.

The engagement of the support part with the wall leg in the slide-in guide means of the floor part can be solved in different ways with respect to constructional configuration. Especially simple constructional conditions are obtained when said support part engages with at least one slide-in bracket into a guide groove of the slide-in guide means and is latched in said guide groove, e.g. by way of a latch-in teething, as is known.

In order to achieve on the one hand a secure support on the floor by the support by way of the stop and to ensure on the other hand a favorable plug-in connection between the two parts of the support, the stop of the support part can consist of a stop web projecting from the wall leg between two slide-in brackets each engaging in a guide groove. This configuration can advantageously be supplemented in such a way that the support part with the wall leg comprises a leaf spring as a spring element which is bent out about an axis parallel to the floor, because in this case the material is favorably utilized if the support part is to be punched from a sheet. This applies especially when said support part forms two leaf springs at the side adjacent to the slide-in brackets. The floor part can easily be made of plastic because no requirements are placed on said floor part which correspond to the requirements on the support part comparable to the leaf springs concerning permanent elasticity. Similar preconditions are obtained when the spring element consists of a separate spring resting between the face side of the floor covering and the floor part, which spring per se can be provided with different configurations, e.g. as a helical spring or as a leaf spring. In order to ensure a sufficient spring travel which does not depend on the block length of the spring when using a helical spring, the helical spring can be provided with a respective conical configuration. A leaf spring must be positioned accordingly, which can be achieved by means of a support in the floor part.

The clamping receiver of the support part with the boundary leg can be provided with different configurations and can be adjusted to the respective cover strips. It is thus possible to provide at least one support web as a clamping receiver which is aligned transversally to the wall leg when the cover strip must be inserted transversally to the wall into the clamping receiver. It is also possible that the wall leg of the support part forms an upwardly protruding support web as a clamping receiver for the cover strip, which support web extends at a distance from the wall, in order to enable inserting the cover strip onto the support substantially parallel to the wall. This embodiment of the clamping receiver represents an advantageous precondition in that the wall leg is supported in the region of the clamping receiver via the cover strip on the wall, so that pressurizing the wall leg with the spring force of at least one spring element causes the pressing of the cover strip against the wall itself.

In order to press the floor part securely against the ground and thus to achieve wall-side contact of the wall leg which is preferably biased for this purpose, the floor leg of the floor part can form a spring which is effective according to height, such that the floor leg of the floor part represents a bent leaf spring itself or is provided with a respective spring tongue. If the spring of the floor leg comprises a stop nose for the floor covering which can be lowered to the plane of the leg, the floor leg of the floor part can be additionally used as a laying aid for the floor covering because the stop nose determines the defined width of the connection gap between the floor covering and the wall. In addition, the distance between the wall and the stop nose which is predetermined by the wall leg of the support can be made visible by a measuring scale for the person laying the floor covering.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter of the invention is shown by way of example in the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an apparatus in accordance with the invention for fastening a cover strip in a simplified cross-sectional view;

FIG. 2 shows said apparatus in a partly sectional view in the direction of arrow 11 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a top view of the floor part of the support;

FIGS. 4 to 6 show different embodiments of an apparatus in accordance with the invention, each in a view according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 shows a further embodiment of an apparatus in accordance with the invention in a view corresponding to FIG. 1, and

FIG. 8 shows a top view of the floor part of the support according to FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to the embodiment in accordance with FIGS. 1 to 3, the support for a cover strip 1 indicated with the dot-dash lines consists of two parts, a floor part 2 and a support part 3. Whereas the floor part 2 with a floor leg 4 grasps beneath the floor covering 5 and forms a slide-in guide means 6 for the support part 3 which extends transversally to the floor covering 5, the support part 3 is provided with a wall leg 8 which rests on the wall 7 and carries a clamping receiver 9 for the cover strip 1. Said clamping receiver 9 consists, in the case of the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 and 2, of support webs 10 which protrude against the cover strip 1 and which engage in a resilient manner with the bent claws 11 into longitudinal grooves 12 of the cover strip 1. For the purpose of supporting the support part 3 on the floor covering 5, a stop 13 in the form of a bent stop section 14 is used which grasps over the floor covering 5 according to FIG. 1. Two slide-in brackets 15 are provided at the side adjacent to said stop section 14 which engage into guide grooves 16 of the slide-in guide means 6 of the floor part 2, as is shown especially in FIG. 2. For the purpose of latching the slide-in brackets 15 into the guide grooves 16, the slide-in brackets 15 are provided with lateral latching teeth 17 which cooperate with counter-teeth 18 in the region of the insertion opening of the guide grooves 16 on the face side and tightly hold the respective engagement position which is determined by the stop 13 when said stop 13 lands on the floor covering 5.

According to FIGS. 1 and 2, spring elements 19 in the form of two leaf springs 20 are associated with the support part 3, which springs extends on either side of the slide-in brackets 15 transversally to the floor covering 5 and are bent out from the plane of the wall leg 8 about an axis parallel to the floor, as is shown in FIG. 1. Since the bent ends of said leaf springs 20 are supported on the front side of the floor covering 5 under bias, the wall leg 8 is pressed under spring force against wall 7, which thus leads to an automatic balancing when the connection gap between wall 7 and floor covering 5 is subjected to a change by a movement of the floor covering 5. A gap-free contact of the cover strip 1 both on the wall 7 and on the floor covering 5 is thus ensured, which occurs independent from the respective width of the connection joint and the respective thickness of the floor covering 5.

In accordance with FIGS. 1 and 3, the floor leg 4 of the floor part 2 is provided with a stop nose 21 projecting in a resilient manner over the thickness of the floor leg 4, as is indicated in FIG. 1. From this stop position, the stop nose 21 can be sunk into a receiving recess 22 of the floor leg 4 against the spring force of the tongue forming the stop nose 21 when the floor covering 5 is moved over the stop nose 21. The stop nose 21 represents a mounting aid which determines a predetermined setpoint value for the width of the connection gap between the floor covering 5 and the wall 7 during the laying of the floor covering 5. In order to make visible the respective distance of the floor covering 5 from the wall 7 to the person laying the floor covering, the floor leg 2 may additionally comprise a measuring scale 23 which can be used for reading off the respective width of the connection gap.

In contrast to the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 3, the supports according to the embodiments according to FIGS. 4 to 6 comprise a plug-in receiver 9 with an upwardly projecting support web 24 which extends at a distance from the wall 7 and which engages in a receiving slot 25 of the cover strip 1 and rests in a resilient manner on the slot walls. With such a configuration of the clamping receiver 9 it is possible to insert the cover strip 1 in a clamping manner into the support from the top parallel to the wall. In accordance with FIG. 4, the support web 24 represents a projection which is bent out from the wall leg 8 of the support part 3 resting on the wall 7, so that the spring elements 19 press the wall leg 8 according to FIG. 1 under bias against the wall 7. In accordance with FIG. 5, the support of the wall leg 8 is achieved via supporting webs 26. The resilient pressing of the support part 3 against wall 7 is not made via leaf springs 20 but via separate spring elements 19 which are arranged as conical helical springs 27 and are inserted into a support 28 of the floor part 2.

According to the embodiment according to FIG. 6, these supporting webs are missing, so that the wall leg 8 rests in the region of the clamping receiver 9 via the cover strip 1 on wall 7 with the effect that the cover strip 1 per se is pressed resiliently against the wall 7 by means of wall leg 8 which is pressed by the spring force of the spring elements 19, thus ensuring a gap-free contact of the cover strip 1 on the wall 7. According to the embodiments of FIGS. 4 and 5, this is only possible when a bias can be applied via the support web 24. As is shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the floor part 2 of the support can be used without any constructional changes for different support parts 3, so that it is only necessary to exchange the support part 3 with the wall leg 8 for adjustment to different cover strips 1.

In accordance with the embodiment according to FIGS. 7 and 8, the spring element 19 is arranged as a separate leaf spring 29 which is inserted into a support 30 of the floor part 2 which is arranged as a slide-in receiver and has a substantially V-like shape, so that the leg ends 31 of the leaf spring 29 rest on the face side of the floor covering 5. This configuration also leads to a resilient pressing of the support part 3 within the terms of pressing the wall leg 8 against the wall 7. FIG. 7 further shows that the floor leg 4 of the floor part 2 is upwardly bent and forms a spring which is effective according to the height.

It is understood that the invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment. It is thus not necessary in any way to provide the support in the form of individual supports which are arranged at a distance from each other, but to provide them in rail form, so that at least one of the two parts of the support consists of a profile rail. 

1. An apparatus for fastening a cover strip with a support arranged in the connection gap between a floor covering and a wall, which support comprises a floor leg grasping beneath the floor covering and a wall leg comprising a clamping receiver for the cover strip, which clamping receiver is pressurized with the spring force of at least one spring element supported on the face side of the floor covering, wherein the support is composed of a floor part (2) with the floor leg (4) and a support part (3) comprising the wall leg (8), forming a stop (13) overlapping the floor covering (5) and engaging in a stop-limited way into a slide-in guide means (6) of the floor part (2) extending transversely to the floor covering.
 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the support part (3) forming the wall leg (8) engages with a least one slide-in bracket (15) into a guide groove (16) of the slide-in guide means (6) of the floor part (2).
 3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the stop (13) of the support part (3) with the wall leg (8) consists of a stop web (14) projecting from the wall leg (8) between two slide-in brackets (15) each engaging in a guide groove.
 4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the support part (3) with the wall leg (8) comprises at least one leaf spring (20) as a spring element (19) which is bent out about an axis parallel to the floor.
 5. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the support part (3) with the wall leg (8) forms two leaf springs (2)) at the side adjacent to the slide-in brackets (15).
 6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spring element (19) consists of at least one separate spring (27, 29) resting between the face side of the floor covering (5) and the floor part (2).
 7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the spring consists of a conical helical spring (27).
 8. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the spring consists of a leaf spring (29) which can be preferably inserted into a support (30) of the floor part (2).
 9. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wall leg (8) of the support part (3) forms a support web as a clamping receiver (9) for the cover strip (1), which support web projects upwardly and extends at a distance from the wall (7).
 10. An apparatus according to claims 9, wherein the wall leg (8) rests on the wall (7) via the cover strip (1) at least in the region of the clamping receiver.
 11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the floor leg (4) of the floor part (2) forms a spring which is effective according to height.
 12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the spring of the floor leg (4) comprises a stop nose (21) for the floor covering (5) which can be sunk into the plane of the leg. 